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Problem is there's no signup security which can't be defeated by OCR or an office full of Chinese people on $0.50 an hour which won't drive away real users. 'Captchas', for example, have devolved to the point where it's probably easier for a computer to read than for me to do so; I typically have to make two or three attempts before I can work one out.

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Problem is there's no signup security which can't be defeated by OCR or an office full of Chinese people on $0.50 an hour which won't drive away real users. 'Captchas', for example, have devolved to the point where it's probably easier for a computer to read than for me to do so; I typically have to make two or three attempts before I can work one out.

Well there are some trends if you look at the spams,

1) they always start a new thread on their initial spam, make it so that creating a new thread on the first posts from a new user can't be put up until reviewed

2) since these are mostly bot signups have the signup process not accept a signup when the form is "instantly" filled from their macro's, etc. Usually with their signups are filled in all in one shot, something a human couldn't really do. Restrict it to the signup process has to take at least a minimum time such as 10 seconds.

There are other ways as well to minimize the effect, they just have to be put in place.

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Problem is there's no signup security which can't be defeated by OCR or an office full of Chinese people on $0.50 an hour which won't drive away real users. 'Captchas', for example, have devolved to the point where it's probably easier for a computer to read than for me to do so; I typically have to make two or three attempts before I can work one out.

id tend to say its the Chinese, except that no profit is involved.

anyone know a reason behind the spam?

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Problem is there's no signup security which can't be defeated by OCR or an office full of Chinese people on $0.50 an hour which won't drive away real users. 'Captchas', for example, have devolved to the point where it's probably easier for a computer to read than for me to do so; I typically have to make two or three attempts before I can work one out.

I hear that.

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Problem is there's no signup security which can't be defeated by OCR or an office full of Chinese people on $0.50 an hour which won't drive away real users. 'Captchas', for example, have devolved to the point where it's probably easier for a computer to read than for me to do so; I typically have to make two or three attempts before I can work one out.

Dunno... I thought Text-chas were pretty effective at filtering out bots and still very accessible? They'll filter out everyone who doesn't speak english though, which might be a good and a bad thing. Good: Chinese wont be able to defeat them (as long as they don't speak english). Con: Non-english speakers wont be able to join the board. But seeing as how this is an english board anyway I don't think that'd be such a big trade-off.

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Dunno... I thought Text-chas were pretty effective at filtering out bots and still very accessible? They'll filter out everyone who doesn't speak english though, which might be a good and a bad thing. Good: Chinese wont be able to defeat them (as long as they don't speak english). Con: Non-english speakers wont be able to join the board. But seeing as how this is an english board anyway I don't think that'd be such a big trade-off.

oh man. poor Qaridarium would be trying for hours and hours.

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You probably need both. Moderators are the only practical solution for human posters, but if you can keep bots and other mass posters out that makes the remaining moderator effort a lot more manageable.